Okay, as I was working on my first units on the Litko bases (I bought 100 3/4" x 1 1/8" bases as a test) I realized I messed up.

My two test units were the Hanoverian Laurenbock Field Regiment and British 28th Infantry Regiment. They look marvelous. Than it hit me. The British 28th Line Regiment should be mounted on a 1" x 1 1/8" base rather than the 3/4" x 1 1/8" base. Frell.

Okay so I guess I will be carefully unmounting those boys and trying over.

I have ordered a whole lot of bases from Litko for my mounting of figures or more specifically remounting of figures.

There is something wrong with order 1000 of one sized base, okay its 1000 3/4" x 1 1/8" and 1000 1" x 1 1/8", and 200 1" x 1 1/2", and so on and so forth, but I am not sure what the problem is, I am sure my wife will tell me, someday.

Sunday, September 28, 2008

While I haven’t posted much, at least publically, on Horse Musket and Gun I have spent many an hour discussing it shortcomings with Fitz as well as exchanging emails with others discussing ways of correcting those issues. Currently the Command and Control structure of Brigades and higher echelons of command does not work as written or even as tried.

It is unfortunately fairly obvious that another major re-write of the rules is necessary to correct the issue of command and control for higher echelons of command. I have spent at least a year looking at other alternatives but none have been forthcoming. This is something that has plagued us from the beginning yet we had always hoped a simple solution would present itself to correct this problem. It hasn’t so a rewrite of the Command and Control rules is going to happen. It is depressing that these are the heart and soul of the rules and isn’t a little rewrite by any means.

As I have to rewrite a large section of the rules I also think it is time to do some other streamlining of other sections in an effort to promote faster play.

While I find it depressing that after eight attempts we are so close and yet so far away from what we want to achieve. After much discussion it obvious that we need to combine the best parts of Napoleonic Commander with Horse Musket and Gun and create a single rule set.

The first step is simplification of the Turn Sequence. I am not the most happy person about having to make that change but the three cycles was just too damn confusing. The new turn sequence will look like this:Command and ControlRally and RecoveryOrder ChangesInitiativeArtillery BombardmentMovementCompulsory MovementChargeMovementCombatRangedCloseMoraleUnitBrigadeHigher Echelon

Also the Morale system will be reworked using a combination of the classes from “Napoleonic Commander” with the more complicated system of “Horse musket and Gun”.Now rather than checking morale when a unit has four fatigue markers a units class will determine how many fatigue markers must be on the unit before the test is taken. Class E troops will have to check with 1 Fatigue Marker while a Class A Unit will have to check with 5 Fatigue Markers.Certain aspects of the game no longer put fatigue markers on the units but it will be tougher to remove them as well.

Combat will still use the attempt table but the modifiers will change slightly.

Saturday, September 27, 2008

I am thinking of painting these 3 small units for a change.they are (Firstlifeguard of halberdiers),(gentlemen at arms),(royal hungarian Noble garde)andleibgarde-infrantrie-kompagnie.i would like to know how big were these units.thank you robert

My Response:

In theory these garde units were of regimental size (unless noted) at leaston paper and responsible for the well being of the Emperor of Austria (orFrancis varying Titles) as well as other courtly function.The Erste Arcieren Leibgarde (First Life Guard of Halberdiers) wore a black coat with red sleeves richly ornamented with Gold. During the Napoleonic Period theyprincipally wore a Bicorn with Gold hat lace.The Trabanten Leibgarde (Gentlmen at Arms) – wore a red coat with black lapels with red pants and waist coat. They wore a Raupenhelm during the Napoleonic Period. The uniform is again richly ornamented in gold.The Leibgarde Infantry were of company strength during the Napoleonic Period. They wore a Grey Coat with Black Facings. The pants were blue with a white stripe. They wore a black bicorn with gold hat lace.The Leibgarde Reiter Eskedron (Squadron of Cavalry) were dressed like the Infantry except with Riding Boots.The Konigliche Ungarisch adleige Leibgarde (Royal Hungarian Nobles' Bodyguard)wore the Traditional Hungarian Hussar Uniform in red with Silver Lace and apanther skin dolmen and pelisse.The Polish Lifeguard (1780 – 1795) wore the traditional Polish Uniform with White fur for lace.The Bohemian Nobles Guard (official title unknown to me) was raised in 1812 and disbanded in late 1814. They wore a white single breasted jacket faced red with Goldlace. This unit also wore a bicorn laced in gold and a black feather plume.

As for me …I started painting up a stand to be the Emperors Body Guard and slowly I ended up with the entirety of the Guard at Paper Strength. Now when fantasy battles occur I can pull out my "guard" and pretend too.I should note that I am working on the entirety of the Austrian Army for 1809(for Napoleon's Battles) at paper strength. All the regular units are done,the border regiments are done, the Guard, and now I am onto the irregular units (Austrian Cossacks got to love them).

Now I am not sure what concerns me more, that I knew the answers to this question or that someone else is demented enough to actually want to paint them up.

I have a terrible habit of picking just the right organization in a game that ends up providing an advantage to myself because the troops or the organization provide something. It doesn’t matter the period or the rules or even what anyone else is doing. I pick something somewhat random (or with a minor reason) and I seem to pick the absolute right troops.

When we decided to do the 1871 Campaign I volunteered to throw myself under the bus and take the first French Corps, or more specifically the 15th Corps. Didn’t think anything of it until we get to the game and realize I have the last Imperial Corps filled with regular troops and the darn French Foreign Legion rather the regiments demarche.

In 1792 I pick a random Russian Corps, who’d thunk the Russians would put the Guard in the V Corps. It was totally by fricking accident.

I wanted to paint up troops of my home state for an ACW project, Wisconsin so I get the Iron Brigade.

World War II, simply because I wanted something other than Grey German Uniforms I get Herman Goering’s Panzer Corps. I felt so bad after painting up Tigers to make up for it I also painted a Luftwaffe Feld Division in their blue uniforms.

So I picked the Swedes for the SYW. Specifically I picked the Swedish Army from Finland, who’d thunk I could have picked something so wrong.

I get to paint three little Dragoon Regiments. In a game where cavalry is rated light or heavy, the Swedish Dragoons are rated as Heavy Cavalry; even the British Dragoons are rated as light cavalry in the game.

So of course I get to hear about this, even though I don’t yet own a copy of rules and had no way of knowing.

Friday, September 26, 2008

I was asked if I had an interest in trying out Shako II as a tactical level game for the Napoleonic period.

Shako II is a pretty through rewrite of both Shako and Advanced Shako rules.After such a bad experience with the Original Shako I am hesitiant to fully commit to trying out the game. There are a couple of issues involved that I do not believe have been worked out.

The rules have gone from a streamline 20 page booklet to nearly 100 pages, that is not a good sign.

They have added lots of specialized rules (artillery pull-back, sappers, engineers and fortifications for example) that were not in the original rules nor the 'advanced rules' found online.

I am also concerned about the cost, as the rules have climbed from $20 to $42. For lots of nice looking pictures. Yawn...

I have basically completed painting my second battalion of the Åboläns Infantry infantry regiment. Just Hair, leather work and a few minor touchups to go.

Per Fitz's direction, even though it goes against all the documentation, I have changed the hat lace to white. All the pictures of the Swedish Infantry have the hat lace as white, yet all the documentation lists the hat lace in the Regimental Colors, which is almost always yellow. So six of one and half a dozen of the other, because all that most people look at is the pictures in an attempt to not deal with discussion on hat lace I went with white.

After completion of the Åboläns Infantry regiment I will move on to the second regiment in the brigade, the Nylands Infantry Regiment of two battalions.

Fitz promised me some Artillery to paint up before the game on the 5th. If I can get that done, simply because Fitz had a few extra figures laying around I will paint up a Grenadier Battalion as an attempt to secure my IndeltaBrethren.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

On August 16th in celebration of Fitz's birthday a number of us got together at the Source Comics and Games for a large game of Napoleonics using our Wilderness Warsvariant called Napoleonic Commander.

The game took place on two tables, the upper table saw Austrians vs. French while the lower table saw Russians vs. French. The tables were in theory two different locations of the same battle during the 1813 Campaign in Germany.

The below pictures were taken by Jim Fitzgearld and are published with his permission. Now if I can just convince Jim not to cut off everyone's head in ALL the pictures.

Keith's Bavarians

Tom Zwirn setting up my French Brigades and the detachment of the Confederation of the Rhine Troops.

Tom inspecting his position.

Jim's blurry Russians

Jim's not so blurry Russians on the other flank.

Keith inspecting the line.

What Keith saw.

Unseen by the Russians a block of Violence's Bavarian Cavalry stormed the board and began moving agains the Russians.

Jeff's Gaming History (The Condensed Version)

I have spent more than three decades painting and pushing little toy soldiers around a table or two, mostly in the Twin Cities area. Originally I was a fantasy player using TSR's Battle System, however as that system fell out of favor I moved to the historical side of the hobby and under the guidance of players like Jim Fitzgerald and BJ Kersteter.

My primary interest is the American War of Independence followed closely by the Napoleonic Period. I am not sure you would know that by simply looking at my figure collection as I have a pretty wide and varied collection.

There is no question I am a megalomaniac when it comes to gaming I have a huge desire to do massive battles. Nothing in the hobby sets me free like the look of 2000 plus figures marching across the table to do battle with one another.

2014 Painted Figure Goal

One of my 2014 New Year’s Resolution was to paint 1000 25/28mm figures in a variety of projects.

What's on my painting table

Currently I am concentrating on completing figures for the French and Indian War and American War of Independence for my birthday gaming celebration, focusing on Warfare in Colonial America.

* 25mm French and Indian War
Mohawk Indians
- Four "companies" of 12 figures
British Independent Companies
- Two companies of 10 figures
Colonial Regiment (TBD)
- Thirty Figures
British Rangers
- Three Companies of 10 figures

*25mm American War of Independence
Virginia Continentals (For Fitz)
- Two Regiments of 20 Figures
New York Continentals
- Two Regiments of 20 Figures
North Carolina Continentals
- One Regiment of 20 Figures